MUSE Ltd.: breadth

breadth

breadth

noun The quality in a MUA (or, indeed, a SUA) of being able to deal with things the players try to do. If a MUA has trees and an axe, it would be narrow not to cover the eventuality that someone may want to fell a tree. Likewise, lakes and seas will encourage attempts to swim; indeed, there are some commands which are reasonable in almost any context (singing, sleeping, throwing, writing). The more that a MUA can cope with these without resorting to a stock catch-all "I don't understand that" response, the greater its breadth. MUAs with the most breadth handle cases which most players would not think of trying, such as trying to open a door with a skeleton or hitting a sack and expecting to fall asleep; such responses are appealing to explorers, who go around looking for them. Breadth should not be confused with size, although to some extent they are related: properly, breadth reflects the magnitude of opportunities players have to do things, even if those things are trivial, therefore an increase in size can influence breadth. Compare depth, see silly.